No Shortcuts to the Top

Making his way through veterinary school, Ed is constantly distracted by the mountains that line the town that his university is located in. After graduating and suffering through several years of being full-time veterinary doctor, his climbing roots finally take a Hold of his life. Dropping his hard earned career, Ed pursues his true passion for the world's highest mountains which had become more and more of a distraction. His new found life brings him happiness, despair, challenge, love, and disappointment while in pursuit of a goal he did not foresee. Though the title suggests that there are no shortcuts for success of this seemingly unattainable goal, he still manages a few regardless.

Annapurna

In the year 1950, a strong group of French climbers entered into the forbidden land of Nepal with unheard of permission from the Maharajah to explore some their remote Himalayan mountains. At the time, their maps were inaccurate, travel was primitive, and all odds were against them in the short climbing season before the monsoon rains. After many weeks of exploration, all hope was vanquished for an attempt on Dhaulagiri and the entire expedition's force was finally focused on the Annapurna Massif. With little time left before the torrential rains began, an attack was mounted and the first 8000m peak conquered. Reaching the summit though came with severe consequences.

Dusty Rucksack

Being that I am a bit of a gear junkie, I am always looking for stuff with the latest features and coolest wingdings. Recently, I was in the market for a new backpack that was lighter and more versatile than the Osprey pack that I currently had. One pack stood out in mind while persusing the web one day; The Cilogear 60 liter Worksack. When I came across a deal online for this very pack I could hardly resist the urge to get out my debit card. Once it arrived in the mail I could hardly wait to start the abuse of it.

When I first suggested the ‘Seattle Dry tool Night’ I was not really sure who would want to go out and scrape around on the rock with sharp metal objects attached to their hands and feet. As for myself, my gear was a little outdated when it came to ice tools for dry tooling. And, I must confess that dry tooling with a straight shaft X-15 was not very friendly on the fingers and knuckles.

I decided to stop by the Cascade Crags climbing Gym today and check out their annual Dry Ice Festival. I met some pretty interesting people and was able to try out a couple of new tools and a new seat Harness that are out there for today’s modern ice climbers. I have to applaud the team at Cascade Crags for getting everyone together each year for this and for having the only dedicated ice climbing wall on the US West Coast. Even though I think that climbing on the styrofoam there is much more difficult than on actual ice all in all it was a good experience. Not to mention I was able to climb my way into a little bit of schwag.